REGION: Familiar county officials sworn in

Assessor is lone new face

Familiar San Diego County elected leaders, and one new official,
were sworn into office during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors
meeting in downtown San Diego.

The incumbents, who were all re-elected last year, are
Supervisor Bill Horn, who also was elected board chairman on
Tuesday by his colleagues; Supervisor Ron Roberts; District
Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan
McAllister.

Sheriff Bill Gore, who was appointed to the county's top law
enforcement post in 2009, also was sworn in. He was elected for the
first time in June 2010.

The lone new face at the ceremony was that of Ernie Dronenburg.
The Fallbrook resident defeated then-incumbent
Assessor-Recorder-Clerk David Butler for the same job in November's
election.

Dronenburg repeated his campaign pledges to make his office more
efficient and customer-friendly. He said he's already made progress
in his first week on plans to reopen branch offices in Kearny Mesa
and Chula Vista by moving around personnel.

For Horn, who begins his fifth board term and his fourth board
chairmanship, guiding the county in 2011 won't be easy.

"We have a difficult future ahead of us," he told the packed
board chambers, where regional leaders such as San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders and U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy watched the
proceedings.

"The state of California has a deep (financial) hole to get out
of ... That's going to require some pain (for the county)," he
said. "We will try to do that with the least impact on the
taxpayers. We have cut back. We will continue to do so. That's my
pledge to you."

Horn said in an interview late last month he expected to
continue to reduce the county's workforce through attrition. His
board colleagues unanimously elected him board chairman without any
public discussion.

Following her swearing in, Dumanis acknowledged the difficult
financial times, noting her office "can't only be tough on crime.
We have to be smart on crime." She said stopping "the revolving
door of recidivism" was one way to fight crime and the cost
associated with it.

Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who handed over leadership of the
board to Horn, noted several of the board's 2010 accomplishments
---- keeping the county in the black, bolstering fire safety and
fighting prescription drug abuse.